How do you explain divorce to a young child? How do you prepare them for a life without a parent? How do you survive without a living parent who doesn’t belong to you anymore? How do you stand on your own when you have no one to teach you? How do you live a life, knowing that your father is out there somewhere, happy, smiling, in love…just not with you? How do you go from being a daddy’s girl to being the child of a single parent…and the parent whom you prefer is gone? This is how: you take the little bit of love that you got, the little bit of normal that you received, and you draw from it to stay sane in a world which has mistreated you. In a world which is unfair, and often cruel. You take those memories and you make them your lifeline. I think that’s what I did. I think that is what I am doing.
I should have loved you while I could
I should have known and understood
That there was not so much time
When I was yours and you were mine
But I was only just a child
I was fun, crazy, and wild
I had a mother and father
It was all you, I saw no other
Holding on to your large hand
We traveled to a Promised Land
I felt safe in your embrace
As I kissed your stubbly face
Those adventures and great trips
Keep my heart from getting ripped
Somehow all that little time
Keeps me sane: live not die
Although I feel like life might end
The love you gave me helps me mend
You were the greatest Papa yet
You are the best thing that I get
Time has flown, now it’s been years
Lots of screams, and breaks, and tears
Tears I had to cry alone
Because without you I’m not home
Every child needs that shoulder
To climb, and cry on when they’re older
Yours were so big and kind and strong
You made me feel like I belonged
And maybe it’s this piece of time
That I now pass down to my kind
As each of my children I hold
I channel you, as tales be told
I keep our memories in a place
Deep in my heart, can’t be erased
I go in there and I take
A little bit, so I don’t break
I think the time that we had
The time when you were my great dad
Is what strengthens me today
Holding a heart about to fray
Thank you for those great 8 years
Thanks for wiping all my tears
Thank you, Thank you, I love you
To you, Papa, I will stay true
